Dept. Colloquium: Professor Petr Kral, Chemistry Department UIC

“Metamaterials and Phenomena: From Porous Graphene to Nanoparticle Superlattices”

We present our recent studies of novel metamaterials and phenomena in them with many potential applications. First, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study fast, selective, and controllable passage of ions and molecules through graphene pores and nanocarbons connected by ligands. Next, we investigate electronic properties of porous nanocarbons and show that porous nanostructures can be mapped one the regular ones from the point of their electronic structures. We continue by showing that water nanodroplets can activate and guide folding of planar grapheme nanostructures. Nanodroplets can induce rapid bending, folding, sliding, rolling, and zipping of graphene nanostructures, which can lead to their self-assembly into sandwiches, capsules, knots, and rings. Then, we present several studies related to self-assembly of nanoparticles at liquid or solid surfaces, which have applications in fluidics and as novel materials with unique optical and electronic properties. Finally, our nanomedicine studies based on self-assembled amphiphilic molecules show an example of nanoscience applied in biology and medicine.